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Johnson Cancer Research Center Newsletter

Category: 2016 Fall

K-State Fighting for a Cure Day Oct. 8

SnyderShirt2016Show your pride in K-State cancer research with one of our new Fighting for a Cure shirts!

Wear the shirt to the home football game or anywhere Oct. 8 for the 3rd Annual K-State Fighting for a Cure Day. Join First Lady of K-State Football Sharon Snyder and the Snyder family, Emmy Award-winning actor and K-State alum Eric Stonestreet, K-State Band Director Frank Tracz and many other Wildcats in celebrating K-State’s fight against cancer and honoring the K-State family’s cancer survivors and researchers.

Eric Stonestreet wearing Cure shirtGet the shirt!  This year’s shirt has a neutral, pink-free design. It’s available from our center for $20. All proceeds support K-State cancer research and education. And we ship! More details are on our Fighting for a Cure Shirt webpage.

Spread the word!  Post photos on social media of you and your friends wearing the shirt along with the hashtag #HelpKStateFightCancer! See past photos on our Facebook page: 2015, 2014 (you don’t need a Facebook account to view them).

Tailgate with us Oct. 8! Tailgate Party Graphic On K-State Fighting for a Cure Day, cheer on the ‘Cats with us at our Tailgate Party in Cat Town!

Thanks to everyone who has supported this shirt campaign the past few years! You raised $20,000 and immeasurable awareness for K-State cancer research and education!

 

All Upcoming Events: Regier Golf Tournament, Tailgate Party and more


The 19th annual Rob Regier Memorial Golf Tournament will be at 1 p.m., Oct. 7, at Colbert Hills. Check-in opens at 11 a.m. Rob was a K-State graduate in pre-dentistry who passed away from cancer at age 26. The tournament is hosted by his family.

 

2016 K-State Fighting for a Cure ShirtUnite in the fight by wearing your K-State ‘Fighting for a Cure’ Shirt Sat., Oct. 8, to the home football game or anywhere in celebration of K-State’s fight against cancer as well as Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Proceeds from shirt sales support cancer research and education at K-State.

 

Tailgate Party GraphicTailgate without the work! Celebrate K-State Fighting for a Cure Day and cheer on the ‘Cats with us Oct. 8 at our Tailgate Party in Cat Town.

 

Sunny 102.5 logosnydershirt2016forwebsiteThe Coach Bill Snyder & Sunny 102.5 Wildcat Challenge to Tackle Cancer takes place throughout the football season.

 

 

Pink Power Luncheon GraphicOur 7th annual Pink Power Luncheon will be Oct. 21. K-State toxicologist Dr. Annelise Nguyen will present “Understanding the Origin of and Therapies for Breast Cancer.” This event is full, but we’ve started a waiting list.

 

MikeHagenseeWe will sponsor a George S. Bascom Memorial Lecture on Current Issues in Clinical Medicine at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 in the K-State Student Union Little Theatre. Michael E. Hagensee, Professor, Section of Infectious Disease, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, will present “HPV vaccination: from laboratory to…bedside?”

 

Other activities include our fall award application deadline of Oct. 3 and  Advisory Council meeting Oct. 1. Events are listed on our Upcoming Events webpage.

Research News & Achievements

IN THE NEWS

Toxicologist’s work featured in Science as Art exhibition

Annelise Nguyen and her science art“Eye of the Storm,” an image captured by Annelise Nguyen, diagnostic medicine/pathobiology, was among nine artistic images selected by the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute (KCALSI) for its third annual Science to Art exhibition and fundraiser auction.

The exhibition provides a platform for scientists to display and describe their research through the visual arts. Funds raised by the auction benefit STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) education in the community.

“Eye of the Storm” shows cell-to-cell communication proteins in human breast cancer tissue. read more

Biochemist studies fruit fly to understand Parkinson’s disease, muscle wasting

Erika GeisbrechtDr. Erika Geisbrecht, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, is studying the fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster, to understand a gene called clueless, or clu. Geisbrecht and her team have found a connection between clu and genes that cause Parkinson’s disease.

read more

 

Pond scum and the gene pool: One critical gene in green algae responsible for multicellular evolution, understanding of cancer origin

Cell ImageBrad Olson, biology, and an international team of researchers found a single gene is responsible for the evolution of multicellular organisms. The study is published in a recent issue of Nature Communications.

read more

 

Professors’ research shows moderate exercise may help cancer treatments

Dr. Brad BehnkeBrad Behnke and David Poole, exercise physiology, have shown that moderate exercise can increase effectiveness of cancer treatments. read Collegian story

 

 

 

FACULTY KUDOS

Dr. Susan Sun

 

Susan Sun, grain science and industry, was named a fellow of the American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers. read more

 

 

 

Dr. Mark Haub

Mark Haub was named Department Head for food, nutrition, dietetics and health department.

 

 

 

STUDENT KUDOS

Melissa RileyMelissa Riley, junior in animal sciences and industry working with Bruce Schultz in anatomy and physiology, was one of only four students in the nation selected as a 2016 Integrative Organismal Systems Physiology Fellow. read more

 

 

Muriel EatonMuriel Eaton, senior in biochemistry working with Jeroen Roelofs in biology, was awarded Duke Summer Undergraduate Research in Pharmacology and Cancer Biology fellowship.

Eaton is also featured in this inspirational KSU Foundation story about how philanthropy has made it possible for her to not only attend K-State but be involved in neurological protein research and other activities K-State has to offer.

 

 

Adam SchiefereckeAdam Schieferecke, senior in microbiology working with Stefan Rothenburg in biology, was a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow at the Mayo Clinic this past summer.

Inaugural Walk Kansas 5K for the Fight was a great success!

WK5K flag & bannerAbout 95 people from across Kansas gathered on the Pedestrian Mall outside our center in Chalmers Hall May 7 to participate in the inaugural Walk Kansas 5K for the Fight and 1.5-mile fun walk. The weather was perfect, the crowd was fun and the event raised $1,025 for K-State cancer research!

We are so grateful to K-State Research & Extension (KSRE), the coordinators of the acclaimed Walk Kansas health initiative, for supporting us! 5K Starting LineThe partnership is perfect since exercise, good nutrition and maintaining a healthy weight all help reduce cancer risk. Many thanks to the “WK5K” planning committee, especially Sharolyn Jackson, Walk Kansas state coordinator; Katie Allen, KSRE communications specialist; and JCRC affiliated researcher Dr. Ric Rosenkranz, department of food, nutrition, dietetics & health.

Team Hartley ran in memory of their father/father-in-law/grandfather, J. Herbert Hartley, a K-State alum who passed away in June 2015 from stomach cancer.
Team Hartley ran in memory of their father/father-in-law/grandfather, J. Herbert Hartley, a K-State alum who died from stomach cancer in June 2015.

We also thank longtime JCRC supporter Sunny 102.5 FM for donating a live remote broadcast, p.a. services and bottled water. Sunny’s presence made it even more fun! Thanks also to Pat Melgares of Manhattan Cross Country Club and Let’s Go Run, for the excellent and discounted timing service and extra guidance! And we couldn’t have pulled it all off without our event-day volunteers, which included K-State students and KSRE professionals.

John Anderson & Ian Harmon
Sunny 102.5 FM show host John Anderson and K-State Cancer Fighters club president Ian Harmon

Next year’s WK5K is planned for the same weekend, Sat. May 6, 2017. We plan to add even more fun elements for all, so mark your calendar and start training!

 

More Successful Events!

Pink & Purple Polyester Party raised $8,300!

Polyester Party 2016You could feel the grooviness in the air at the Pink & Purple Polyester Party April 22. About 200 party-goers, decked out in pink, purple and retro attire, filled the Houston Street Ballroom in support of K-State cancer research! They boogied down to live music from Disco Dick & the Mirrorballs, cheered on costume contest participants, and stuffed cash into blinged-out bras created by local businesses and modeled by easy-going K-State students!Polyester Party Bra

The party raised $8,300! We extend big thanks to the wonderful planning committee, major sponsor CivicPlus and all the other sponsors, as well as the party-goers and other supporters. It was a truly unique and fun party! You can view photos on our Facebook.

Next year’s party will be Fri., April 7, 2017!

Thanks, “P4” Committee!
Dr. Thad & Shannon Schneider, Flint Hills Pain Management

John & Cindy La Barge, J & C Imaging
Bobbi French, G. Thomas Jewelers
Patrick Lee, N Zone
Missy & Mick Tener
Dave Lewis, Dave Lewis Entertainment
Brooke Minihan

 

Kaw Valley Rodeo Association’s Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign raised $5,000

Dr. Gene Klingler, Bud Cox & Dr. Rob Denell

The 10th annual Tough Enough to Wear Pink Rodeo and inaugural BBQ fundraiser at Cox Bros. BBQ raised about $5,000 this year! We thank the Kaw Valley Rodeo Association and its “pink committee,” as well as major sponsors Women’s Health Group and Cox Bros. BBQ and all the other sponsors and event attendees!

 

 

 

Mason’s Wish raised $21,660

Mason holding checkMason’s Wish, a charity that raises funds for K-State cancer research, recently donated $21,660! Their main fundraiser is an annual golf tournament sponsored by Western States Fire Protection in Colorado. Big thanks to both of them and their supporters!

Mason’s Wish is a charity started and managed by Mason Wolfe and her mom Nancy Wolfe, a 1990 K-State alumna, with support from family and friends. To date, they have raised almost $160,000 for K-State cancer research by selling candles, games, t-shirts and other items, and holding benefit events. They started the charity after Mason’s father, Fred Wolfe, a 1993 K-State alum, was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. She wanted to do something to not feel hopeless and to help her dad and other families.